The Bottom Line
Pros
- Fast CD-R and DVD+/-R Performance
- Very Quiet Drive
- DVD-RAM Support
Cons
- Unable to Achieve 18x Speeds During Testing
- Mediocre Dual Layer Speeds
Description
- 18x DVD+R and DVD-R Recording Speeds
- 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW Recording Speeds
- 8x DVD+R and DVD-R Dual Layer Recording Speeds
- 12x DVD-RAM Recording Speeds
- 16x DVD-ROM Reading Speeds
- 48x CD-R and 32X CD-RW Recording Speeds
- 48x CD-ROM Reading Speeds
- 160ms Access Times
- 2MB Buffer and IDE Interface
- Nero 7 Essentials Burning Software
Guide Review - AOpen DSW1812P 18x DVD Burner
10/4/06 – The AOpen DSW1812P is like many of the latest DVD burners to offer 18x recording speeds for DVD recordable media. In addition, it supports the 8x recording speed for the dual layer DVD media provided you can find the media in stores. The drive also supports the DVD-RAM media type that is more common to Asian than the US market.
During testing, the AOpen DSW1812P performed at the top when using the DVD+R, DVD-R and CD-R media types. It generally was at or near the top in all of the writing and reading tests. While the drive failed to reach the 18x speeds, it still performed very strongly at the 16x speeds. The rewriteable performance was a bit lower than average though. Access times were also much better than the 160ms specification that AOpen claims.
AOpen advertises the drive to have silent technology in the DSW1812P. During the recording and playback testing of the unit, the drive did generally run at much lower volume levels than the typical DVD burner. This makes the AOpen DSW1812P a good choice for those looking at low noise systems.
AOpen supplies an OEM version of the Nero Burning 7 software suite with the drive for use with CD and DVD recording. A secondary black faceplate is included to allow the drive to be used with either white or black case designs.
